


The Air Mattress

by alexmercer



Category: Six of Crows Series - Leigh Bardugo
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M, Non-Explicit, One Shot, Pining, Sharing a Bed, implied kanej, jesper works at the coffee shop, sleepover!!!, wylan arrives just before closing time, wylan needs a place to stay for the night and jesper is happy to help
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-03
Updated: 2020-06-03
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:40:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24527779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alexmercer/pseuds/alexmercer
Summary: When Wylan arrives at Coffee Dregs moments before closing time and in desperate need of a place to stay, Kaz volunteers Jesper's apartment. Jesper himself isn't sold on the idea at first, but it doesn't stay that way for very long.
Relationships: Jesper Fahey/Wylan Van Eck
Comments: 3
Kudos: 101





	The Air Mattress

Working at Coffee Dregs was not Jesper’s ideal job. The customers were rude and Jesper didn’t have the patience for most of them; the coffee machine was liable to break, and in recent times Jesper’s method of ‘slap it until it turns on’ had been working less and less; and Jesper’s close friend and boss, Kaz Brekker, had recently been extremely stressed as competitor shops opened up all down the road.

And days like this were slow. It was Monday evening, five minutes before closing, and Jesper had been drumming an off-beat rhythm on the counter for the past hour and a half, waiting for a customer to enter. None had, and Jesper was considering just hanging his apron up and leaving early.

With two minutes until his shift ended, Jesper finally gave in.

“Kaz,” he called into the little room behind the counter where Kaz’s office was set up, “I’m clocking out!”

“You can make up the time you miss at the end of your next shift if you do,” Kaz called back.

“You mean the entire minute and a half?”

“Exactly.”

Knowing Kaz would stay true to his petty word, Jesper decided to just stay for the remaining minute of his shift just so he wouldn’t have to blame past-Jesper for making him stay late at his next shift. There were only a few seconds left by now, but suddenly the door flung open and somebody tumbled into the shop.

‘Tumbled’ was right. The boy before Jesper landed on the floor with a thump, and scooted over to the door, slamming his full body weight against it to keep it shut. Then in one swift but wholly uncoordinated movement, he scrambled to his feet and locked the door. The boy was panting heavily, his face was flushed red, and his gold-tinged brick-red hair was plastered to his face with sweat.

Jesper blinked at the flustered boy and then smiled pleasantly. “Welcome to Coffee Dregs, what can I get you?”

The boy stared at Jesper, then looked back to the door, then to Jesper, then to the door again, then out the window, and then he gave a little yelp and dove below a table.

“Just let me stay here a moment?” the boy whisper-shouted across the room. “And don’t open the door!”

Jesper raised an eyebrow. “Okay,” he said slowly, then opened the door behind the counter. “Kaz, there’s a boy cowering under one of the tables. This wasn’t covered on my induction day.”

“Oh, thank God,” said the boy from under the table. “He’s actually here.”

Kaz had a face like a wet weekend and when he saw the boy under the table his raincloud eyes darkened to a storm. “Wylan,” he said unemotionally. “I take it your reunion didn’t go well.”

The boy – Wylan – shook his head frantically. “They’re after me. Again. Is there anywhere I can stay?”

“Jesper has a spare bed. Stay with him for the night and we’ll figure something out in the morning.”

Jesper spluttered. “Excuse me? Do I not get a say as to whether the kid comes home with me? I prefer to choose who I keep overnight, and I don’t take whoever’s thrown my way.”

“He’ll be a guest, Jesper, not a hook-up. Consider it a job.” Kaz turned back to Wylan, who was still crouched under the table. His face had returned to a normal pallor, extremely pale, and Jesper noticed a smattering of freckles across his face. Wylan had the brightest blue eyes too, and Jesper wondered how he hadn’t noticed them before. Well, he thought, maybe Wylan would be a guest to begin with but Jesper couldn’t say he’d mind if it did turn into a hook-up.

He rolled his eyes reluctantly. “Fine. Just for the night.”

Kaz had positioned himself by the window and was peering out onto the dark street. Autumn was creeping into winter, and all that was outside was a few stray dead leaves blown by the rapidly increasing wind.

“Everything appears to be alright,” Kaz announced. “Wylan, you can come out now.”

Wylan gave a lopsided grin, still under the table. “I’m gay.”

Jesper laughed, but apparently Kaz didn’t find it so funny. “You’re hiding from armed men hired by your father to kill you where you stand and you’re making jokes about your sexuality. Somehow it doesn’t seem like an appropriate time. Now, I’ll drive the both of you back to Jesper’s apartment. Wylan, I’ll meet you there tomorrow morning.”

Jesper raised a hand. “What about my car? It’s outside, I can’t leave it here overnight – I’ll get a parking ticket and I…” He hesitated, glancing at Wylan who was trying to extricate himself from the tablecloth. “I can’t afford anything else this month.”

Kaz rolled his eyes and sighed dramatically. “If it will ease your mind, Jesper, _I’ll_ pay whatever fine they put on your pathetic excuse for a car. Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if you got here in the morning and it had been towed – in fact, I’d be grateful to have a mess like that off my hands. Now can we please get going.”

“Alright, jeez,” Jesper said, raising his hands in mock surrender. “No need to crap all over my car.”

“Your car is crap enough already. Let’s go.”

The three men trailed outside and walked to Kaz’s car (which was considerably nicer than Jesper’s, he thought bitterly) and Kaz unlocked it, allowing them in. He clambered into the driver’s seat, as Wylan hopped into the back, and Jesper opened the door to the passenger seat up front.

Instead of an empty seat like he’d expected, Jesper was greeted by a bouquet of flowers.

“Kaz,” he said as the other man started the car’s engine. “There’s something in my seat.”

“Not your seat,” Kaz growled. “Get in the back.”

Jesper grumbled as he slammed the door again and climbed into the back, leaving the middle seat between him and Wylan. “So I’ve been replaced by flowers now? Why do you even have them?”

In the mirror, he saw Kaz’s eyes narrow. “It’s none of your business.”

“They’re geraniums,” Wylan observed, leaning over a little as the car started and Kaz brought them speeding away from the coffee shop. At the sudden movement of the car, Wylan steadied himself by placing a hand on the middle seat, but it accidentally wound up on top of Jesper’s. Wylan’s face pinked and he snatched his hand back. “Sorry.”

“If you wanted to hold my hand you could have just asked,” Jesper joked. Wylan turned to look out the window.

The rest of the car journey was uncomfortably quiet. On occasion, Kaz would mutter something about careless drivers and beep the car’s horn furiously. A few times, they passed fields, and Wylan would point out animals with a single word, like, “Cows.”

Jesper couldn’t help but study Wylan. He hadn’t been able to tell too well amongst the hassle in the coffee shop, or in the dark street, but the limited light filtering in through the car’s windows from streetlamps cast an amber glow over Wylan and it was extremely flattering. Wylan was attractive to begin with, what with his soft features, ruddy hair, and those gorgeous blue eyes, but with his hand propped under his chin as he looked out the window, he looked like a portrait by the most talented artist to ever live.

Kaz pulled up outside Jesper’s apartment building and didn’t offer any form of goodbye as the other two got out the car. The moment Jesper shut his door, Kaz was driving again. Jesper shook his head and turned to face Wylan.

“My apartment is on the ground floor, so it’s not much of a walk,” he explained, heading inside and leading Wylan to his flat. “And that spare bed Kaz mentioned is really just an air mattress with a hole in it. So if you’d rather sleep on something more comfortable, my bed has room for one more.” He winked, and delighted in seeing Wylan’s cheeks flush again.

“The air mattress is fine,” Wylan said in a strangled voice as Jesper unlocked the door.

“That’s a shame,” Jesper said. He flicked on the lights and placed his keys on the little cabinet in the hallway. “It’s only a little apartment so it’ll be pretty hard for you to get lost. Kitchen’s over there, make yourself something if you like – but saying that, there’s not much in the fridge. I might have some stale waffles somewhere. If not, you can put something on TV or whatever. I’ll go and find that air mattress.”

Wylan nodded and offered Jesper a shy smile. As if Wylan wasn’t good-looking enough already, now he had the sheer nerve to _smile_ at Jesper? This was downright unfair.

“Thank you, Jesper,” he said. “You know, for letting me stay here. Putting up with me. I know this is super weird.”

Jesper shrugged. “I’ve done weirder things at Kaz’s request.” Wylan’s eyebrows shot into his hairline and Jesper realised how he’d interpreted his words. “Oh my God. Not weird things like that. Get your mind out of the gutter. I mean, yeah, there was a time where I would have, but that was years ago.”

Wylan stammered for a response for a moment, his mouth bobbing open and closed like a fish. Adorable. “How about that air mattress?” he finally settled on. Jesper gave a nod and headed to the airing cupboard.

He searched hard. He really did. It wasn’t him making up excuses to share his bed with Wylan, he wouldn’t have gone that far. But the air mattress was nowhere to be seen. Jesper practically disembowelled his airing cupboard looking for it, old clothes and bedsheets strewn all over the place, but it simply wasn’t in there. And then he remembered that Nina had borrowed it last month when she and Inej had got tipsy and wanted to build a fort in her living room and she was yet to give it back. Damn it.

Scratching the back of his neck, Jesper returned to the living area where Wylan had perched himself on the very edge of the sofa as if afraid to relax and somehow trash Jesper’s apartment (which wasn’t exactly clean in the first place). He had turned the TV on and had selected a David Attenborough documentary. Jesper admired his taste.

“So this is a little awkward,” Jesper said, avoiding Wylan’s curious gaze, “but I don’t have the air mattress. I just remembered my friend borrowed it. So, as an apology – and I don’t give out apologies lightly – you can sleep in my bed for the night and I’ll find a blanket and kip on the sofa.”

Wylan’s mouth dropped open and he stood up, immediately protesting. “No, don’t worry, I’ll be fine on the sofa! Really, it’s no trouble, you shouldn’t have to give up your room just because Kaz forced a guest on you. Besides, it’s freezing out here, you can’t sleep without a proper duvet.”

Jesper frowned. “Yeah. They shut my heating off.”

“Why did they–”

“Offer of the shared bed is still on the table,” Jesper said, half-joking, but waggling his eyebrows suggestively. He hadn’t intended to bring the subject up again, but he didn’t really want to admit that he hadn’t had the money to pay half his bills that month.

To his surprise, the redhead appeared to be considering it. “Well, that way neither of us would have to sleep out here and get cold…” He blushed yet again and met Jesper’s eye. “Would that be weird? I mean, you hadn’t met me until about an hour ago. If you’re uncomfortable with it, I’ll stay on the sofa, it’s fine, don’t wo–”

“Hey,” Jesper interrupted, placing a hand on Wylan’s shoulder to silence him. “We’re both adults. We can share a bed… sensibly. It’s cool.”

Wylan nodded. “If you’re sure.”

“If _you’re_ sure.”

“I’m sure.”

“So am I.”

“Okay. Where’s your room?”

Jesper led Wylan to his bedroom and immediately regretted not being clairvoyant, knowing he’d be taking a cute guy home tonight, and cleaning up. There were clothes everywhere, empty bottles and glasses stacked on the nightstand, and his bedcovers had half fallen from the end of his bed.

“Sorry it’s such a mess,” he said awkwardly. “I didn’t know I’d have company.”

Wylan didn’t complain. Rather, he looked around the room and smiled a little. He needed to stop smiling or Jesper was going to break his earlier promise and the bed would not be shared sensibly (assuming Wylan was alright with that, of course).

“I don’t mind,” Wylan said. “I don’t like clean rooms anyway. They feel more lived-in and homey if they’re messy anyway. Which side of the bed do you want?”

From the tone of his voice alone, Jesper would have guessed that Wylan was perfectly fine with this and leapt into bed with strangers every other night, but from the fuchsia blush on his cheeks, it was plain to see that he was not as calm and collected as he sounded. Jesper grinned.

“I don’t mind,” he told Wylan. “Whatever you prefer.”

Wylan gave a short nod and moved to stand by the left side of the bed. He paused there for a moment before muttering, more to himself than to Jesper, “I didn’t bring pyjamas.”

Jesper laughed. “Do you want to borrow on of my old shirts?” he offered, already rooting through a drawer. “I mean, you’re already borrowing my bed as well. Might as well go the whole way.”

“The whole way?” Wylan squeaked. Jesper fought the urge to laugh.

“Not what I meant,” he said, and then after a pause he added, “Unless you’d be up for that.”

Wylan hummed. “Ordinarily I’d take you up on that offer but I’ve spent a lot of time today being chased by men with knives and guns trying to use them on me and it’s tuckered me out a bit, so I think I’ll just get some sleep.”

Jesper grinned and tossed Wylan an old grey t-shirt to put on. “What did you even do?”

“I did what Kaz asked me to do – went back to my father’s house to ‘pick some stuff up’ that I left there when I ran away, but really I was meant to get information, and my dad was quick to jump to conclusions and set his guys on me.” As Wylan spoke, Jesper started changing, taking his shirt off to put on a different, older t-shirt, and removing his trousers so that he was left in his boxers. While he wasn’t looking at Wylan, he didn’t miss the hitches and hesitations in his voice, which Jesper hoped meant he was taking a long look.

Jesper turned back and saw that Wylan had already changed, and frowned that he’d missed the show. All he could see now was the bottom half of Wylan’s skinny, pale legs – the shirt Jesper had lent him came almost to his knees – and, rather pleasantly, most of Wylan’s collarbone that the shirt generously revealed.

Suddenly he realised he’d been staring far too long and hadn’t said a word. Wylan was looking a little worried. Jesper just winked and climbed into the bed, on the right side. Wylan got under the covers on the left. It was only a single bed, so they touched all along one side from shoulder to foot.

Jesper turned off the bedside lamp.

“Goodnight, Wylan.”

“Goodnight, Jesper.”

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on Tumblr: @yonderlands and @gaylebcovington


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